Lisa Burbidge, 66, a grandmother-of-four from Whickham, who died in the terror attack

One boss told the inquest he had been contacted by a security consultancy firm in March 2015 following a terror attack at the Bardo National Museum in the country's capital Tunis.

The firm was not hired to carry out an audit of security in Sousse until July - a month after the massacre.

ISIS extremist Seifeddine Rezgui killed 38 tourists - including 30 Britons and three Irish citizens - in a Kalashnikov rampage on June 26.

Ian Chapman, regional director for West Mediterranean at TUI, said that after the Bardo attack he had received an email from security firm Covenant which carried out the work for TUI in Egypt.

Covenant suggested that it would be "worthwhile" to meet up to discuss Tunisia, but Mr Chapman said in his statement that he did not arrange a meeting with the firm.

Jacque Reynolds, a director of risk and compliance for the travel firm, said in a witness statement: "TUI did not carry out regular security risk assessments of resorts or hotels prior to the Sousse attack.

"The only security reviews (of hotels) that had been commissioned before then were in Egypt."

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Covenant's briefing note after its audit in July said: "The current level of emergency planning and the associated procedures such as evacuation and invacuation need to be enhanced to meet the challenges of the evolving security situation.

"A best guess at this is simply not good enough. This is something that should be designed by security specialists alongside the hotel management because they will need to understand the plans and procedures and also communicate them to their staff together."

Andrew Ritchie QC, counsel for the families of the victims, put it to Ms Reynolds that, had TUI instigated the security audit after the Bardo attack, the company had 11 weeks to make changes, and "might have saved quite a few lives by having those things in place".

He also said to her: "I put it to you that TUI should have audited security on paper or by sending an expert adviser when the FCO (Foreign Office) advised there was a high risk of terror activity after Bardo. Would you agree with that?"

She said she did not agree, adding: "We were told on numerous occasions that the advice wouldn't be changing."

Owen Richards and his mum Suzanne Richards outside the inquest. Owen's, brother Joel Richards, 19, died in the Sousse terror attack in Tunisia along with his uncle, 49-year-old Adrian Evans, and his grandfather, Charles Patrick Evans, 78

Ms Reynolds said that a reason security did not form part of safety audits was because of the conditions and circumstances of security being "variable", in contrast with the more static nature of swimming pool depths for example.

Mr Ritchie said: "May I put it to you that if the security is variable that's the whole reason you audit."

She agreed with Mr Ritchie's summary that TUI "relied on hotels and local authorities" regarding these matters